Gersande La Flèche replied to Vincent Mousseau's status
@vmousseau The title seems a subtle dig towards that stupendously terrible self help book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, which makes me giggle.
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💬 they/them ; iel/lo
🍵 Lots of nonfiction, literary fiction, poetry, classical literature, speculative fiction, magical realism, etc. English, French, and many translations.
📖 Beaucoup de non-fiction, de fiction littéraire, de poésie, de classiques, de spéculatif, de réalisme magique, etc. Lecture en anglais et en français, et beaucoup de traductions.
💌 Find me on Mastodon: silvan.cloud/@gersande
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2023 Reading Goal
21% complete! Gersande La Flèche has read 3 of 14 books.
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Gersande La Flèche wants to read Gaucher.ère contrarié.e by V.S. Goela
Les trajectoires paradoxales des treize personnages s'entrelacent comme les fils d'une tapisserie humaine bigarrée, toutes …
Vu sur le feed de Vincent!
Gersande La Flèche replied to Vincent Mousseau's status
@vmousseau !!! Woah!
Gersande La Flèche
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Vincent Mousseau quoted The Shame Machine by Cathy O'Neil
An examination of the way (predominantly American) society uses shame, and an exploration of the …
This righteous attitude confronts an outstretched hand with a fist. Shaming the poor not only saves the wealthier classes money but also makes them feel virtuous. It's akin to the self-satisfaction felt by the thin in the presence of the obese and the sober when comparing themselves to those with a drug or alcohol problem. We succeeded, they think. These others failed. It is this mindset, once again, that sustains the shamescape.
— The Shame Machine by Cathy O'Neil (Page 58)
Gersande La Flèche finished reading Swan Dive by Georgina Pazcoguin
Pazcoguin's memoir covers the two+ decades of her career (which started when she was a child) at the New York City Ballet. The gothic humour was welcome and familiar around the tougher memories of relentless emotional, sexist, and racist abuse. During the more triumphant parts of the book (and there are some really great ones), your heart soars at Pazcoguin's words. Righteous!
Organized in a series of non-chronological vignettes (some very out of order), there is definitely a method to it, though it requires a bit of work to keep names and places and years straight. It pays off at the end: maybe you're even a little emotionally winded, but in the best of ways.
While the book offers a tantalizing and brutal window into the amazingly dysfunctional, abusive, and hurt/ing art form that is ballet, the book is careful (and wise) to anchor it to Pazcoguin's perspectives and memories. …
Pazcoguin's memoir covers the two+ decades of her career (which started when she was a child) at the New York City Ballet. The gothic humour was welcome and familiar around the tougher memories of relentless emotional, sexist, and racist abuse. During the more triumphant parts of the book (and there are some really great ones), your heart soars at Pazcoguin's words. Righteous!
Organized in a series of non-chronological vignettes (some very out of order), there is definitely a method to it, though it requires a bit of work to keep names and places and years straight. It pays off at the end: maybe you're even a little emotionally winded, but in the best of ways.
While the book offers a tantalizing and brutal window into the amazingly dysfunctional, abusive, and hurt/ing art form that is ballet, the book is careful (and wise) to anchor it to Pazcoguin's perspectives and memories. While there are villains (namely Peter Martins, the disgraced former head of NYCB) the book is firm in placing most of the responsibility at the feet of ballet's culture, audience, and gatekeepers. The issue is systemic; while individual actors can cause atrocious amounts of damage, the solutions have to go beyond holding them personally to account.
Highly entertaining, intensely relatable (despite my never doing anything remotely resembling being a professional dancer at NYCB), and a very hopeful read that I'll definitely revisit again.
Gersande La Flèche
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"Unapologetic is a 21st century guide to building a Black liberation movement through a Black …
Our history of resistance shows what oppressed humans will do when freedom and collective liberation are on the horizon. Our resistance is richly textured, and our tactics range from armed rebellion and self-defense to various forms of noncooperation (e.g., sit-ins and boycotts) to cultural preservation—all under various threats of violence. Knowing we are part of the Black radical tradition, young Black people feel a duty to fight for our freedom, as directed by Assata Shakur. This responsibility is both a birthright and a burden.
— Unapologetic by Charlene A. Carruthers (Page 24)
Gersande La Flèche commented on Swan Dive by Georgina Pazcoguin
Continues to be very good. I don't really understand Broadway or musical theatre but the anecdotes about being in Cats are amazing.
Gersande La Flèche started reading Swan Dive by Georgina Pazcoguin
Finally breaking my scary-long spell of no reading with the memoir of a mixed raced NYCB dancer who battled an enormous amount of mysogyny, racism, and fatphobia to become a force of nature. Am at 44 % of the ebook. Interesting, frank, sometimes convoluted but never in a bad way, and often intensely funny writing.
Gersande La Flèche replied to leifur's status
@leifur Is this about the soft side of networking or the technical side?
Gersande La Flèche
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leifur finished reading Witchmark by C. L. Polk
Witchmark by C. L. Polk
In an original world reminiscent of Edwardian England in the shadow of a World War, cabals of noble families use …
Gersande La Flèche
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Vincent Mousseau quoted Stolen Focus by Johann Hari
Is your ability to focus and pay attention in free fall?
You are not alone. …
A study by the Pew Research Center found that if you fill your Facebook posts with “indignant disagreement,” you’ll double your likes and shares. So an algorithm that prioritizes keeping you glued to the screen will—unintentionally but inevitably—prioritize outraging and angering you. If it’s more enraging, it’s more engaging.
— Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (Page 132)
Gersande La Flèche replied to Vincent Mousseau's status
@vmousseau Ruth Ozeki is a favourite author of mine, so her glowing recommendation on the cover on top of yours is making me really want to check this out! Also, I love one-day reads! Adding it to my own TBR!
Gersande La Flèche replied to Vincent Mousseau's status
@vmousseau I'm nudging it up the tbr list...
Gersande La Flèche replied to Vincent Mousseau's status
@vmousseau All the quotes you shared from this were absolute fire.
Gersande La Flèche stopped reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the …
I've had to return my copy to the library (been a while now actually) and my little "true crime" wonderings has seriously abated (see earlier notes on this book, I think I talked about it). I have some thoughts about the first couple chapters that I don't think I talked about here, but I'll probably eventually get back to Capote. Fluid writing style.